According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, passenger car sales in April were 2.001 million units, down 10.5% month-on-month and 10.5% year-on-year. Among them, domestic passenger car sales were 1.572 million units, down 13.2% month-on-month and up 5.1% year-on-year.
Among them, domestic sales of fuel vehicles were 878,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 10.8%, while new energy vehicles increased by 38% year-on-year.
According to another set of data, the sales volume of Chinese brand passenger cars in April was 1.272 million units, a year-on-year increase of 27.3%, and the market share was 63.5%.
This year's price war began in January and peaked at the end of February, until the end of the Beijing Auto Show, the price war entered a stable period, characterized by no longer large-scale product price reductions, and prices will not rise.
In this kind of market, the only thing that car companies can fight for is brand power and product power.
The price can't continue to fall, who has more stamina?
After the price war, car prices stabilized.
In the current market segment, the price of A00 class cars has dropped to 30,000 yuan, A0 class has dropped to 50,000 yuan, A-class has dropped to 70,000 yuan, B-class has come to 120,000 yuan, and C-class has stabilized within 250,000 yuan. The new cars that will be launched next will basically need to be priced according to this price trend.
According to the average selling price released by some Chinese car companies in the past two years, users have a closer propensity to buy a car closer to 150,000, which means that higher-level and higher-priced cars sell better.
This situation is also reflected in the market terminal. For example, entering 2024, the current situation is that the order growth rate of the M9 with the highest price is better than that of the M7, which is nearly half cheaper; After the release of the L6, the only thing that can rebound when the L6 sells well is not the Ideal L7, which is close to the L6, but the most expensive L9.
NIO, another new energy brand with a higher average selling price, has seen a significant rebound in sales, selling 16,000 new cars in April and more than 7,000 orders on May Day.
The opposite is Tesla and Xpeng.
Tesla wants to harvest the market again through price cuts in April, although the May Day report has warmed up compared with April, but unlike in the past, Tesla's price reduction failed to cause panic among friends, nor did it trigger a new round of price war, which also positively shows that the price system of new energy vehicles is stabilizing.
From this, it can be judged that whether from the perspective of friends or users, Tesla's brand power cannot support it to continue to dominate the Chinese auto market.
Xiaopeng's problem also comes from brand power, mid-range products, there is no luxury attribute of Weilai, and there is no market impact after the product price reduction, on the other hand, Xiaopeng has not yet launched the aircraft, as far as the tram is concerned, there is no technical support similar to Weilai battery replacement that changes the market pattern, that is, the homogenization is serious, resulting in even if the price is reduced, there are many competing products in the market that can match its price, which makes Xiaopeng's competitiveness insufficient.
At present, in the case of a stable price war, car companies that can still maintain their competitiveness not only look at the new forces, but also Hongmeng Zhixing, Ideal, and Weilai have opportunities, and Tesla will also face a period of pain. And Xiaopeng, from the sales point of view, Xiaopeng X9 market dividend period has passed, the growth point is gone, and it may return to the original state, and now it depends on whether Xiaopeng MONA can save the market.
In addition, there is an opportunity for Zerorun, which has been taking the low-price and people-friendly route, focusing on selling products with the same configuration to two-thirds or even half of the price of other brands, in exchange for sales, and the effect is good so far. Coupled with the fact that the cooperation with Stellantis has entered a substantive stage, Leaprun has opportunities not only in the domestic market, but also in the international market.
With the support of various policies, brands that can sell well without fighting price wars will have more opportunities in the future
Although the price war has slowed down, with the support of various policies, the threshold for car purchase has also been lowered.
Taking the Tesla Model Y rear-wheel drive version as an example, a new car priced at 249,900 yuan, without any optional configuration, the down payment ratio can reach as low as 15%, that is, 37,500 + insurance can drive away the new car, and the longest loan period is 60 months, and the monthly repayment is about 4,000 yuan.
Ideal L6, the lowest down payment ratio is also 15%, only 36,720 yuan + insurance, you can drive the car away.
Coupled with subsidies such as trade-in, the price of the whole vehicle and the down payment price will be lower. In other words, compared with the previous minimum down payment of 30%, the threshold for buying a car is gradually lowering under the existing policy. In addition, car prices have stabilized, and consumers' willingness to buy is stronger than in the previous period of price chaos, which has also boosted the sales of the car market.
In fact, car companies that sell cars with policy dividends often do not have a lot of preferential treatment under the price war, because the low profit of new energy vehicles is a common problem in the market. Most of the new energy car companies do not have a stable and sustainable income, subsidies for new car profits, some car companies with value-added services, such as Weilai battery swap, Xiaopeng Zhijia, etc., Weilai laying battery swap stations is currently high cost, and has not yet entered the profitability stage, Xiaopeng Zhijia is the same, can not find a better profit point.
Huawei's Yu Chengdong also said,Hongmeng Zhixing,Products like Zhijie S7 are selling at a loss,In fact, it's not just Zhijie S7 that sells cars at a loss,This is also a common phenomenon in the current new energy vehicle market。 Therefore, there are only a few new energy vehicle companies that can afford to fight the price war.
The price of the car tends to be stable, for the new energy car companies that do not want to fight the price war, one is to be able to take a breath during the market stability period, and the other is not to rely on the price of the market, is the time to really fight for product power and brand power. This is the main reason why NIO can fight its way out of the encirclement after immersion for a long time; HarmonyOS has always relied on preferential rights and interests, rather than substantial price reductions, and can stabilize sales, which also shows that HarmonyOS Zhixing's brand power and product attributes have laid a foundation in the user group; With a gross profit margin of over 20% in 2023, Ideal will adjust the price back to the positioning of its products after a short period of coldness, and it will gradually return to the normal market level.
Tesla, will face more in the same price range, better configuration, with high-end intelligent driving, higher level models, Tesla wants to change the status quo, the FSD mentioned above, and then go deeper, after FSD is integrated into the car price, how can there be a very competitive pricing. After all, the Model 3, which is now the lowest configuration, plus FSD, is priced close to 300,000.
epilogue
If there is no price war, the car market will be more volatile in the second half of the year. The reason is that most of the price wars caused before have given car companies a compromise on the market as a last resort. After that, we may be able to see more price reductions with cost reduction capabilities and technology value-added, rather than blindly following the trend.
At present, it is known that the price of batteries has fallen, the cost of intelligent driving has decreased, integrated die-casting, CTC and other technologies have reduced the cost of production and manufacturing, and the price of cars in the future can be reduced, but it must be a stable trend, and fine-tuning will be realized according to industry changes.